Rural Alberta Advantage – Mended With Gold

Mended with Gold is Toronto band Rural Alberta Advantage’s most accomplished album yet and marks a significant progression in their sound from the quirky folk of their 2009 debut Homelands through to 2011’s follow up Departing.

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Homelands’  unusual rhythms and folk influence are still there, but this album sounds much bigger, even indie-rock in places. This larger, radio-friendly canvass suits them more and makes this feel more complete as an album. Homelands, in contrast, with its lower budget sound, hasn’t weathered as well, apart from its standout track Don’t Haunt This Place.

The opening four tracks on Mended with Gold are marvelous crowd pleasing epics and it’s not until track five, Runners in the Night, that we get a hint of the low key trio that brought us Homelands. This largely acoustic, slower number emerges as a  highlight and builds up nicely to another ‘slowey’ To Be Scared, which sounds almost Fleet Foxish at times. After this slow break the album settles back into more rock territory for the final half, in which the frantic pace of All We’ve Ever Known is among many highlights.

Departing garnered a Polaris Music Prize nomination in Canada and their debut gained fans like us across the world. Mended with Gold is an album that will receive similar plaudits and praise from the music press but more importantly oozes with the confidence of a band that knows they are at the top of their game.

8/10

by Joe Lepper

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